China net filtering overlord gets pwned

The microblog of the brains behind China's infamous net filtering systems has been taken offline following a wave of criticism from net users.

Fang Binxing, president of the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, was integral in the development of the "Great Firewall of China", which as well as blocking access to politically contentious content also attempts to block access to social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter.

China has its own micro-blogging alternative to Twitter, called Weibo, which is run by local firm Sina.

Soon after Fang established a profile with Weibo, posting three updates on Monday morning, the account came in for waves of criticism with users airing the grievances about internet censorship, the Hong Kong-based Sydney Morning Heraldreports.

It's unclear whether this protest was organised from the start or was something that began as a spontaneous outpouring against an unpopular figure that activists later latched onto and decided to promote.

In response, Fang asked Weibo to delete his posts and the comments that followed.

Sina, which invited Fang to open the account in the first place, also blocked "Fang Binxing" as a search term. ®